Purple Raiders offense follows its leader

There was no doubt who would
lead Mount Union's offense in 2013, only a question of how far
Kevin Burke, right, would take them.
Photo by Dan Poel, d3photography.com

By Adam Turer
D3sports.com

Kevin Burke lost a championship game once. He was in eighth
grade at St. Bernadette’s in Westlake, Ohio. The quarterback
and his teammates had been undefeated since third grade and were
favored over St. Raphael. The Bulldogs lost to St. Raphael, despite
Burke toughing it out after injuring a ligament in the thumb of his
throwing hand on the game’s first possession.

Kevin Burke was a backup once. His freshman season at Lakewood
St. Edward was spent quarterbacking the “B” team, while
Robbie Plagens, who eventually walked on at Miami University,
quarterbacked the freshman “A” team. Actually, he was a
backup twice. As a freshman at Mount Union, he saw limited action
in nine games, rushing for 113 yards and a touchdown and passing
for 73 yards. He did not get on the field in the Purple
Raiders’ 13-10 loss to UW-Whitewater in the 2011 Stagg
Bowl.

Kevin Burke had a losing record once. After leading St.
Edward’s junior varsity to an undefeated season as a
sophomore, Burke was slated to be the backup to Alex Lavisky as a
junior. The Eagles were welcoming in a new coaching staff that
would be installing a new offense. Late in the summer, Lavisky
decided he would forgo football to focus on baseball (he was
eventually drafted in the eighth round of the MLB draft by the
Cleveland Indians). Burke was thrust into the starting job for a
team in transition. The Eagles went 4-6, but Burke proved that he
could lead a team.

Other than that, all he has done is win. Since 2010, he is 44-0
as a starting quarterback, with an Ohio high school state
championship and a Stagg Bowl victory. On Friday, he can lead a
team to his third championship in four seasons.

“He is extremely poised. He has played in big games and
been in tough situations and he never gets rattled,” said
Mount Union head coach Vince Kehres. “People always talk
about whether a player, especially a quarterback, has
‘it’, whatever ‘it’ is. Kevin has
‘it’.”

A fourth-quarter deficit certainly doesn’t rattle Burke.
Those who know him best were not surprised in the least that Burke
led the Purple Raiders to the go-ahead touchdown with 67 seconds to
play in the semifinal win over North Central. When Kevin was 2
years old, he wandered into the backyard where his three older
siblings played. His father, Jeff, found him grasping the first
monkey bar, ready to swing to the other side. When Kevin was 6, his
parents took him skiing for the first time. Moments after
proclaiming “It’s showtime!” at the top of the
hill, young Kevin was zooming down the slopes, in total control.
When North Central took the lead with 1:38 to play on Saturday,
Kevin looked up while warming up on the sideline and made eye
contact with Jeff. Father had no doubt that his son was about to
lead another memorable touchdown drive.

“He has always been fearless,” said Jeff Burke.
“Being the youngest, I think he was mature for his age from a
very young age. He is not ever flustered.”

Kevin’s two older sisters were accomplished dancers and
gymnasts and his older brother played wide receiver for Georgetown
University after starring in three sports at St. Edward. Several of
his high school teammates earned Division I football scholarships.
The state of Ohio produced several Division I college quarterbacks
in Burke’s class. St. Edward had appeared in three state
championship games but had never won a title. All of these factors
could have placed pressure on Burke, or motivated him to exceed
expectations. While he still has a chip on his shoulder from that
eighth grade championship loss, he has been defined by his ability
to not press too hard or try to do too much.

“I’m not big on looking ahead or looking in the
past. The most important thing is preparing myself for the
present,” said Burke. “I’ve played in big games
before and it’s something I’ve gotten used to. That
eighth grade championship game still eats me up to this day,
though.”

The Eagles were 14-0 and one win away from the first state
championship in school history. The last team in their path was
Huber Heights Wayne and a 6-3 dual threat quarterback named Braxton
Miller. Wayne held a 21-7 lead late in the third quarter. A nervous
energy spread among fans who had seen St. Edward come close but
fall short in the state final before. Burke was, as always,
unfazed. He just smiled and told his coaches that their team would
win. St. Edward scored three straight times to take a lead, but
Miller put Wayne back on top by a point with 2:34 to play. North
Central fans can now commiserate with Wayne faithful. Burke led the
Eagles to the go-ahead score 62 seconds later.

“That last drive, he willed his team down the
field,” said St. Edward coach Rick Finotti. “He is
obviously a great talent, and he’s a tremendous leader. Those
young men believed in Kevin.”

Burke is a leader who can fire his teammates up when needed, but
he is most effective as a calm, quiet leader. His smooth confidence
inspires the same in his teammates.

“He is very calm. Nerves aren’t there at all, even
if we’re down with a minute left,” said Purple Raiders
right guard Pat Mahoney. “The main thing is we’re all
looking at Kevin. If he’s in a panic, we panic. That’s
never happened.”

His relentless positivity rallies his teammates, but also helps
his coaches. Football coaches are generally a high-strung bunch,
fretting over every minute detail and planning for any imaginable
setback. When Kevin Burke is your starting quarterback, you can
rest a little easier.

“His poise helps me. It gives me confidence and helps me
make decisions that are tough decisions to make,” said
Kehres. “I know he has the ability and the leadership to make
the plays we need to make. I think the reason for our poise, a lot
of that has to do with Kevin Burke.”

“He gives me and the coaching staff confidence, and that
rubs off on his teammates.”

When he started his first varsity game as a junior for St.
Edward, Burke played almost too loose. He celebrated prematurely on
a would-be touchdown run, and bounced the ball off his leg and
through the end zone for a touchback. He just moved on to the next
possession.

“He’s always handled adversity well,” said his
mother, Tama Burke. “He can let it go and go on to the next
thing well. He is always calm about things he is in control
of.”

Finotti believes that Burke was fully prepared to compete with
and overtake Lavisky for the starting job before the returning
starter and senior decided to focus on baseball. After earning the
job by default and struggling to adapt to a new offense and
coaching staff en route to a 4-6 season, Burke never got down on
himself or his teammates.

“Kevin was unfazed by it all. The thing that stood out to
me is how effective he is as a leader,” said Finotti.
“He never sweats the small stuff. A lot of players like to
talk, but very, very few can actually walk the walk. He follows
through like nobody I’ve ever known.”

While his high school teammates, including his entire offensive
line, signed college scholarships, the undersized Burke was
completely supportive. He was genuinely happy for his teammates on
National Signing Day and never resented being overlooked by bigger
schools. He believed that Mount Union would be a great fit, and it
has been that and more so far. But, it wasn’t like he just
stepped on campus and was handed the keys to the offense along with
a walnut and bronze trophy.

During an intrasquad scrimmage during his freshman year,
All-America linebacker Charles Dieuseul sent a message to the
newcomer. He lit up Burke, and let him know that at Mount Union, to
be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. Burke inspired his
teammates by bouncing right back after the big hit from the veteran
linebacker.

Mahoney was a defensive lineman before moving to the offensive
line this year. He admired Burke’s toughness from that first
intrasquad scrimmage and is now thrilled to be on the other side of
Burke’s elusiveness.

“Honestly, I’m glad I’m not rushing him in
practice anymore. You think you have him wrapped up and he’s
squirming away,” said Mahoney. “Sometimes, honestly, I
don’t know where he’s at, then I see him pop out of
nowhere and I just follow him to the end zone.”

Kevin Burke, game by game

Opponent

Cmp

Att.

Pct.

Yds

Y/A

TD

Int.

Sack

Rush

Yds

TD

Franklin

17

25

.680

266

10.6

1

0

2

9

72

0

at Muskingum

18

31

.581

247

8.0

3

3

0

14

82

0

Marietta

22

30

.733

336

11.2

5

0

1

4

23

0

at Ohio Northern

18

21

.857

304

14.5

4

0

1

8

62

0

Wilmington

12

18

.667

209

11.6

4

1

1

9

111

2

at Capital

7

18

.389

176

9.8

2

0

1

14

157

3

Otterbein

5

13

.385

128

9.8

3

0

0

13

71

0

at Heidelberg

16

22

.727

310

14.1

4

0

5

22

91

0

Baldwin Wallace

15

23

.652

197

8.6

2

1

1

7

34

1

John Carroll

21

35

.600

374

10.7

3

0

3

10

23

2

Wash. and Jeff.

13

23

.565

198

8.6

4

1

3

16

60

0

Wittenberg

20

32

.625

326

10.2

5

0

4

14

83

1

Wesley

16

27

.593

280

10.4

3

0

3

15

35

2

North Central (Ill.)

12

19

.632

163

8.6

1

1

1

28

131

2

Burke became the first Mount Union quarterback to rush for more
than 1,000 yards in a season. He leads the nation in pass
efficiency. He has carried the ball 183 times and attempted 337
passes, while turning the ball over just 12 times this season. In
the 2010 Ohio high school state championship, he accounted for 219
yards of total offense and scored two touchdowns. On the biggest
stage of his life at that point, he did not turn the ball over.
Miller threw two interceptions in the loss.

Last season, Burke was a sophomore surrounded by ten seniors
starting on Mount Union’s offense. This year, he is the lone
returning starter to a unit that is second in the nation in total
offense, averaging 528.6 yards per game. He has brought the new
starters into the fold seamlessly. It would have been
understandable for the defending champion to feel that he needed to
carry the offense back to the Stagg Bowl, but Burke instead became
more selfless this season.

“I don’t feel that it’s just me that has to
make plays. All of these guys on offense know what Mount Union
football is all about and these guys work their butts off,”
said Burke. “They take the pressure off of me big time. I
trust them and they trust me.”

That trust was built up over a year of weight room workouts and
practices. That trust has solidified as Burke has rallied the
Purple Raiders to come-from-behind victories over multiple
nationally-ranked opponents. That trust comes naturally when your
quarterback is as calm in the last two minutes of a national
semifinal as he is in a non-conference game in September.

“We’ve been doing it all year. We’ve had some
thrillers, then we’re ready to move on,” said Burke.
“You get battle-tested. That’s helped us out a lot this
year. We’re more ready than ever.”

The Purple Raiders have embraced the mantra of “business
as usual” on the field each week. Last year, Burke helped
deliver a Stagg Bowl victory for the senior class that was in
danger of graduating without one. He didn’t feel pressure
then, and he certainly doesn’t feel it now. He’s just
doing what he’s been doing his whole life: playing
quarterback, having fun, and winning games.

“Obviously, when you come to Mount Union, there is an
expectation to win, but I don’t feel and I don’t think
the team feels pressure because we prepare and know what
we’re supposed to do,” said Burke.

Burke’s trip to Salem will begin earlier this year, as he
is one of four finalists for the Gagliardi Trophy. Those who have
seen his leadership on and off the field will not be surprised if
he adds another accolade on Wednesday night. However, Burke has
never been known for his individual awards. He is the ultimate team
player. If you have been fortunate enough to be Kevin Burke’s
teammate at some point, there is a very good chance that you are a
champion.

He is athletic and smart and puts up gaudy numbers, but so do a
lot of quarterbacks. He prepares relentlessly and leads a team with
a storied history, but so do a lot of quarterbacks. He wins
championships at every level. Not many quarterbacks do that.

“The thing that really stands out is his
intangibles,” Finotti, his high school coach, said.
“It’s the stuff between his ears and in his heart. You
can’t measure it. That’s what really sets him
apart.”